Real Madrid and Borussia Dortmund will be fighting for glory as the Champions League final awaits at Wembley stadium.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 It's time for European football showpiece event.
00:04 Wembley Stadium will play host to 2024's Champions League final.
00:09 Can Real Madrid take the title for the 15th time?
00:12 Or will Borussia Dortmund cause an upset and lift the cup for the first time since 1997?
00:19 Hello and welcome to Football Now.
00:26 The Champions League final is one of the most anticipated events in the football calendar.
00:32 This year, Real Madrid will go head-to-head with Borussia Dortmund to lift the trophy.
00:37 During this campaign, both clubs have defied the odds to make it to Wembley.
00:42 Drawn in a group of death alongside PSG, Newcastle United and AC Milan,
00:47 Dortmund have given the famous yellow wall plenty to cheer about.
00:51 Madrid have had to overcome huge obstacles of their own.
00:55 They avenged last year's heavy defeat to Manchester City
00:58 by beating Pep Guardiola's team on penalties at the Etihad Stadium in the quarter-finals.
01:04 They then scored two goals in the final minutes of the semi-final to knock out Bayern Munich
01:09 and book a spot in their sixth final in ten years.
01:13 I am very excited because it would have been a bit disappointing to watch an all-German final.
01:18 It's always nice to have two different teams from two different countries taking each other on.
01:22 And it is very romantic. You've seen in Dortmund that a lot of the times they're happy to forego possession.
01:27 It means that they will be strong defensively and they have really played as a cohesive unit.
01:32 They will be good in the transitions because they have that great striker in Volker,
01:35 who no one would have imagined would have taken this competition by storm.
01:38 But he's been magnificent to watch.
01:40 You would imagine that it would be Real Madrid, especially with Kroos in midfield,
01:44 like we watched him in the semi-finals, just take complete ownership over the passing range that he can produce.
01:50 It's second to none. And so they will take possession of the ball.
01:53 They will try to find ways, whether it be through the pace of Vinnie Junior or Rodrigo's relentless movement up front.
01:58 You would imagine Dortmund will try to win something on the counter-attack.
02:02 But it's very hard at the moment to believe in Dortmund's chances.
02:06 Mostly because if Real Madrid can overcome Bayern, they can overcome Manchester City.
02:12 And they do so with these comebacks that you wouldn't imagine or perfect penalty shootouts.
02:17 You wonder which team in Europe can actually defeat this team.
02:21 Real Madrid head to Wembley looking for a record 15th Champions League win.
02:26 They'll be bolstered by their star midfielder Jude Bellingham, who's been making headlines all season.
02:32 Just a year ago, Jude completed a switch from Dortmund to Madrid for a record €105m fee.
02:40 Now he will face the club that gave him his big break in Europe's final showpiece.
02:46 The great thing about Bellingham is just the way that he's been developed.
02:50 It's the kind of mindset that he has. Every decision has been carefully thought out for his career projection.
02:55 In choosing Dortmund, he chose a team in which he can play regular football and allow himself to develop
03:01 with a side that has constantly developed the very best youngsters in the world.
03:05 He was allowed regular playing time, allowed to make his mistakes and learn from them to develop.
03:10 In choosing Real Madrid, he wanted to make sure that he would get that winning mentality.
03:14 Coming up against Dortmund, it's going to be interesting to see how he emotionally takes that on board.
03:19 But you just imagine a professional like him. He's just fabulous to watch.
03:23 Well, no one expected Borussia Dortmund to make this year's final.
03:28 The last time they were in this position was 11 years ago.
03:32 So can they cause an upset this time around and lift the trophy for the first time since 1997?
03:39 It's a cup game. Cup games are always, as we've seen several times throughout this competition,
03:47 you can throw any tactic out the window. It's only so much an extent of fan base can affect play.
03:53 But Dortmund is one of the ones that really can get to you. And to have that support,
03:59 to have the T-bows and the banners that they do, it's just a different feeling.
04:05 And there's only a few clubs in Germany that can do it to that level.
04:09 No matter what happens from the stage, they've still done beyond anyone's thought.
04:14 So it's just going to be a good night out for Dortmund fans.
04:17 Obviously, they'll want to win it, but I think they know the objectives ahead of them.
04:23 Two clubs steeped in European history and tradition, it's a final for the Romantics.
04:29 While some clubs can't seem to get it right in Europe's elite tournament,
04:33 in this competition, a certain magic surrounds certain teams.
04:38 It's that intangible aspect that makes the Champions League one of the hardest prizes to win in world football.
04:45 I don't think there's necessarily a recipe for it.
04:47 And I think a lot of teams would agree that there is a large element of luck,
04:51 a luck element in the draw, a luck element in what can happen over two legs.
04:55 But also at the same time, there is a real strong sense of tradition and magic.
05:00 The clubs who have those really storied histories and really passionate fan bases
05:05 that are there following them through good times and through bad times,
05:08 the likes of PSG and Manchester City, although they have storied histories of their own,
05:13 they don't quite have the European pedigree that some of these other clubs like Real Madrid, Liverpool, Dortmund and numerous others have.
05:21 Some clubs are just built for continental competition, Real Madrid being the obvious example of that.
05:27 You know, it's something that I think at the end of the day is a very elite band of clubs.
05:31 And it's really, really hard to break into that.
05:34 A fascinating final is in store at Wembley, but will it be Real Madrid or Borussia Dortmund to win the 2024 Champions League?
05:43 Let us know your thoughts using the hashtag #footballnowCLfinal.
05:47 That's all we have time for from our studio here in Doha.
05:51 We'll see you next time. Bye for now.
05:53 [music]
05:58 [BLANK_AUDIO]